I’ve come across dozens of interesting things to share with you lately, but I’ve also been quite short of time. So here are a whole bunch of things I think you’ll like, all at once, for your weekend reading pleasure.

I’ve thought of doing this for a while now: occasional posts full of linky goodness. But a pleasing name for such postings failed to suggest itself to me, and so I was thwarted. This morning, though, the name arrived in my brain. This is An Exaltation of Links. Because why should the larks have all the fun?

What was that about the larks?

It’s one of those marvellous collective noun terms, like a murder of crows. And this books sounds fun: An Exaltation of Larks: The Ultimate Edition.

Education

The coddling of post-secondary students annoys me very much. And here’s a fine article about that from the New York Times: The dangerous safety of college.

And from the Guardian: Teachers must ditch ‘neuromyth’ of learning styles, say scientists. Oh please, yes.

Extraordinary planning

First, there’s this: ‘London Bridge is down’: the secret plan for the days after the Queen’s death. It’s long and detailed and fascinating.

And then a different kind of planning altogether: One Small Town’s Plan to Prevent Another Mass Shooting. Summary: “A Kansas community seeks to understand a recent massacre—and use a cutting-edge strategy to stop the next one.”

History & archaeology

From LiveScience.com: Ancient Tomb Decorated with Vibrant Murals Found in China.

From ScienceNordic: High flames gave status to ancient funeral pyres.

From archaeology.org: The first American revolution – “the Pueblo Revolt, an indigenous uprising that began on August 10, 1680. On that date, Pueblo warriors from 19 separate villages carried out a coordinated attack on Spanish missionaries and colonists across New Mexico. Within a few days, they had driven virtually all Spaniards out of the province.”

From sciencemag.org: It wasn’t just Greece: Archaeologists find early democratic societies in the Americas.

Language

From phys org: Germany to test dialect analysis software on asylum-seekers.

And oh, this is amazing. From the Guardian: The hidden sound patterns that could overturn years of linguistic theory.

Health

How ’bout this: New alternative to colonoscopy is as easy as swallowing a pill That sounds so much better that the current version of a colonoscopy!

And while you’re at the gym, ponder this: Whole-body vibration may be as effective as regular exercise.

We’re having a huge opiod overdose crisis in Canada, so finally we are starting to see some sensible policy changes. Vice.com reports that Canada is prescribing heroin to treat opiod addiction. About time.

Privacy

The CIA didn’t break Signal or What’s App. Excellent!

Signal is great, by the way. Install it on your phone if you haven’t already, and get your friends to try it as well.

Did you think your Google searches are private? Think again. Edina police ask for whole city’s Google searches, and a judge says yes.

Maybe you should be saying yes to a search engine that doesn’t track you, like DuckDuckGo.

From The Intercept: Rand Paul Is Right: NSA Routinely Monitors Americans’ Communications Without Warrants.

Security

Password rules are bullshit. Oh, aren’t they just? All sorts of sites – including banks -force us to choose passwords that are inherently insecure. This article is a good rant on the topic. Link found here.

eBook sales platform

Cory Doctorow writes about the ebook platform he’s creating. It “allows traditionally published authors to serve as retailers for their publishers, selling their ebooks direct to their fans and pocketing the 30% that Amazon would usually take, as well as the 25% the publisher gives back to them later in royalties.”

Techno-hell

From TechDirt: Extra Digit Accidentally Typed By Officer Turns UK Man Into A Pedophile. What a nightmare.

That reminds me of the woman who was falsely labelled an alcoholic by the NHS a few years ago.

Self-driving vehicles

Good.is notes that To Be As Safe As Possible, Self-Driving Cars Will Be Programmed To Kill. But should they kill you, the car’s owner, or the pedestrians the car is about to hit?

Science Nordic says Driverless busses are coming to a street near you.

Upbeat

From the CBC: Looking for the best teacher in the world? Head to northern Quebec. I like the sound of the life this woman has created for herself, as well as the things she does for her community.

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Well, there you go. That’s about a fifth of the things I though about blogging in the last week or so, but didn’t.

My inspiration for trying this all the links in one post approach comes from some of the blogs I read that do this. Here are a few that I enjoy:

• Elsewhere posts like this one at Floccinaucical.com
• From the world pool posts at Microfishing

Is this format something I should try again? Hmmm. I’ll have to think about that.

Your comments, as always, are welcome.